Noel Fielding Interview

The brilliantly unique stand up of Noel Fielding will be making a return to Australia, including a stint at Sydney Comedy Festival! Here, the popular comic talks to us about New York Cop, prehistoric flying dogs and Tim Tams.

We know An Evening With Noel Fielding will be full of colour and loads of fun; what sort of things do you have planned for the lucky audience?
There’s stand up, some sketches, some music, some audience interaction and some live animation. I’m also bringing my brother and Tom Meeten who play various characters in the shows. So yeah… I’m keeping it pretty simple as usual.

From The Mighty Boosh to Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy, your comedy is so unique and bizarre; how did your ascent into the comedic world begin?
I studied painting at college and wanted to be an artist, but was always fascinated by comedy, so I decided to give stand up a whirl at university. I started by doing stand up pretending to be Jesus Christ, until I was confident to try it as myself. In my first year of stand up, I met Juilan, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Who would you say is your most popular character with fans? Do you have a personal favourite?
Probably Old Gregg from The Mighty Boosh. For my solo stuff probably Fantasy Man and New York Cop. I love playing New York Cop most because he’s big, brash and American, so nothing like me.

We had a chat with Harry Koisser from Peace, who told us that you saw a spider so big in Australia that it used a pedestrian crossing to cross the road; what other crazy things have you seen during your visits Down Under?
I love Harry and I’m hoping to meet up with him in Australia. Apart from the big spiders, the thing that fascinated me was the fruit bats in the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne; they were like prehistoric flying dogs. Julian and I used to call them the fruit dogs. Wonderful specimens.

Is there anything you’d like to get up to during your visit besides the shows?
I’d like to meet up with Greg Fleet and Sam Simmons, two of my favourite Australian comedians; visit some art galleries in Sydney and maybe go to the zoo in Melbourne. And maybe track down the Tame Impala and Pond boys. And hang out with the legendary Henry Wagons.

You manage to combine comedy with your love for music; had you ever considered doing music?
We did a lot of music in the Boosh. We actually recorded an album in Electric Lady Studies in New York but it’s never come out… hopefully one day it will. And over the last five years, I’ve been making music for my TV shows with Sergio Pizzorno from Kasabian. We formed a band called Loose Tapestries and we’re signed to Sony. Our first album ‘Loose Tapestries Presents: The Luxury Comedy Tapes’ came out last year. There are some vinyls still kicking about on eBay. It’s a psychedelic-medieval-funk album.

As a fan of dressing up, what’s been your favourite costume or piece of clothing over the years?
I wear a lot of stuff by the designer Bas Kosters who makes dresses for men. He also made me a kind of yeti suit that I wore on Never Mind The Buzzcocks. He’s a bit of a genius.

Do fans ever send you any gifts? What are the most memorable?
They send me a lot of artwork and sweets. I don’t eat the sweets anymore but I love how creative they all are – there’s some talented people out there. If any Australia fans want to know what to bring me – Tim Tams. I love Tim Tams sucked through tea. That’s another thing I’m looking forward to do in Australia.

Noel Fielding Australian Tour Dates

19th April & 3rd May – Hamer Hall, Melbourne (www.ticketmaster.com.au)
25th April – Riverside Theatre, Perth (www.ticketek.com.au)
1st & 5th May – State Theatre and Enmore Theatre, Sydney (www.ticketmaster.com.au)

By Charlotte Mellor
@cmellor_03